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Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, artist-turned-activist Convict Julie is an interdisciplinary, all-encompassing artist. As a songwriter, producer, and performing artist, Convict Julie shares her lived experiences through her music, creating empathetic connections with her audience through themes of mental health, Blackness, and vulnerability.
Thoughts from Convict Julie on her album Exquisite Pain
How would you describe your practice?
I would describe my practice as an authentic expression of myself that is unfiltered and a vulnerable glimpse into my world.
What was the inspiration behind this album?
My album “Exquisite Pain” was inspired by real events: after quitting music to be an organizing activist against racial injustice, I experienced a mental health crisis that I struggled cope with as a result of my activism work in the community. I was suffering from PTSD from being in the dangerous position as an unprotected 21 year old Black woman rallying thousands of people in protest in a city where racism has marred our community. Black women’s mental health experiences are not widely highlighted or shared, but I felt compelled to share my experience and open that door in hopes that it would contribute to the larger discussions from within my community. This album sequences the breakdown, the isolation, the fear, the grief, the coping mechanisms, and the resilience of my experience in recovering from my experience.
What do you believe is the role of music and the musician?
The role of music in our society serves many purposes individually and collectively. Music is a vehicle for authentic expression first and foremost and can simultaneously be broken down into sub-vehicles. For me, music is therapy and empathetic connection to the world at large. It also serves as a medium of social messaging and education. The role of the musician is to be the driver of that vehicle and in some cases, the engineer who builds that vehicle to be driven. Musicians create the feeling, the experience, the context, and are the creators of worlds that exist within mere minutes of music. The musician’s role is to be their most authentic self.
What about Neon Door led you to submit?
I appreciate the approach Neon Door takes in how the publication chooses to embrace artists where they are at in their fullest expression. As a publication that rejects competition in art and instead chooses a democratic, qualitative approach to art in its raw essence, I perceived that my art and my perspective would be welcomed. In a world where validity of one’s work is assigned upon the precedence of a quantitive social barometer (followers, views, and impressions), Neon Door views art in all forms without the influence of numeric value, which is rare.
How do you see your work evolving?
I see my work evolving in conjunction with how I evolve as a human. As I grow in my authentic evolution, so does my art. I become more honest and the music follows suit, to where the glimpse of the world I choose to show transforms into a window and eventual a door that anyone can come through and experience my perspective with the option to embrace, reject, judge, or accept me. The more I evolve, the less I care about winning anyone over, rather I instead care about having the continued courage to put myself out there and surrender the outcome of the response to my existence.
Photo of word art is a still from Exquisite Pain: The Visual Album by Convict Julie
Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, artist-turned-activist Convict Julie is an interdisciplinary, all-encompassing artist. As a songwriter, producer, and performing artist, Convict Julie shares her lived experiences through her music, creating empathetic connections with her audience through themes of mental health, Blackness, and vulnerability.
Instagram: @convictjulie
Facebook: @convictjulie
Website: www.convictjulie.com
